I checked out the posts suggested but can't seem to find the answer. If someone could help I would appreciate it. Out of the blue, I am not able to copy and paste from the internet into Word--Text mainly. Taking classes online and really need this option. Running XP. Please help.

I haven't met this before. You can't copy anything from the Internet?
You know, sometimes the content you wanna copy is protected? I saw some webpages do no allow copy, or some pages are PDF and open in Adobe Reader, but the PDF is protected from copying and printing, then you just can not copy them.

There are a few different ways to copy text, but some are more effective than others. Sometimes I've not been able to copy text from the web using my toolbar Copy button, (and get a grayed-out Paste command when I try to paste the new text), but I CAN copy when instead, I highlight the text, right-click the mouse, and select Copy from the little Context Menu that opens. Then, when I attempt to paste it, I DO get the Paste command and it works, the text is copied.

If this doesn't work for you, I would try clicking the MS icon at the top of the Word document you want to paste the copied text into, clicking Word Options at the bottom of the screen, selecting Advanced, and then going to the "Cut, copy and paste" section. In this section, try changing some copying and paste formatting options (particularly "Pasting between documents when style definitions conflict,") then closing Word, reopening it, and then going back into the 'Cut, copy and paste" section and change the option back to the way it was. Sometimes settings get corrupted (for unknown reasons), and just the mechanics of tweaking them and shutting down and re-opening the program (or even shutting down the computer and rebooting), will restore them to the way they were.